Yugi spent much of the next few days sleeping, or trying to sleep, or drifting halfway between the two. He lost count of how much time he spent sealed up in that most confining prison he had chosen for himself. The Wind People seemed to be primarily nocturnal, doing most of their moving about starting in the evening, and would halt their progress once the sun began to get hot. During the daylight hours, they would sleep, and Yugi and Ryou could escape their confinements and move about a little. They ate but little, taking what they could from the communal stores, and occasionally refilling their waterskins. It was a blessing to have such things, for even at night, it grew uncomfortably warm when you were sealed up inside a trunk of clothing inside a stuffy wagon. Even during daylight hours, they spoke very little and very quietly. Yugi pitied Ryou; at least Yugi could pass the time talking to Yami, but Ryou had nothing to do at all. All three of them suffered from acute boredom and restlessness.
It was no wonder that Yugi sought refuge in dreams. Often he dreamed of his home, and believed that he would wake up and find his grandfather waiting for him. Sometimes he dreamed his old dreams about discovering wonders hidden in the mountains where he wandered. Once, he had a very strange dream regarding the boy he had seen at Baron Kaiba's side. He had wondered who the boy was, at the time, but had been in no position to make inquiries. It was only natural that such unsolved riddles would plague him, now that he had nothing else to think about. In his dream, the boy was running as fast as he could, trying to get away from something. He ran and ran, but his pursuer was always gaining on him. At last, the boy was captured, and Yugi realized that the one chasing him was the thief Bakura, who snatched the golden circlet off the boy's head with a laugh of victory. He held it up with a gloating smile, and it melted and ran through his fingers until it turned into Yugi's pendant.
"You bought it with blood, didn't you?" he sneered. "Bought it with blood!"
Yugi tried to deny this, but on doing so, he woke up. Something was happening; the fact that he could see chinks of light through the sides of his trunk argued that it was daylight, but he could hear voices, such as he hadn't heard since he'd begun this strange journey. It occurred to him that the wagon he rode in was no longer moving, and a series of muffled bumps and scuffles and the occasional curse could only mean that someone out there was unpacking.
I wonder where we are now?
A town, of course, Yami told him. They'll be stopping here to buy supplies, and perhaps to stay and perform a few days. I'll be able to tell you which town, once we get out.
Yugi nodded a little, wondering. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to get out of this trunk and slip out of the encampment without being noticed by someone. Once he was in town, he supposed it was possible that he could safely mingle with the locals and start looking for honest work, but he had a slight superstitious fear of the mythical Wind People, and didn't relish the idea of them learning they had stowaways. He didn't really know what their attitudes towards Halves were, either.
Don't be afraid, said Yami. They are a good-hearted people. I doubt they'll hurt you, if you explain things to them.
How long have you been dead? Yugi asked him.
There was a thoughtful pause. I'm not sure. I think it could have been as many as twenty years.
Don't you think some things could have changed since then?
It's possible, Yami allowed.
They didn't get any more time to discuss the issue, because at that moment, there was a great heaving and swaying, and Yugi realized he was being carried off to some unknown destination. He held his breath and tried not to cry out every time he felt his carriers shift their grips, and he prayed that whoever was moving him would have the grace not to drop him. There certainly were a number of complaints that the box was much heavier than it had any right to be. Luckily, nobody seemed inclined to take a look inside. At last, the journey ended, and Yugi found himself left in some mysterious, dim, quiet space. He waited a moment, trying to decide if it was safe. Curiosity overcame him at last, and he carefully worked the lid of his trunk loose and had a look around.
He was inside a tent, but one that had been made comfortable with a few bits of furniture and heaps of pillows. The floor was made of tough canvas, thick enough to resist whatever rocks and sticks might have been lurking on the ground, and was further covered up by a colorful rug that appeared to be made of cast-off bits of cloth, woven and knotted together into an incongruent whole. A folding screen was set up on one side of the room, as well as a folding clothes rack. A pallet on the floor seemed to be all there was of a bed. Yugi was relieved to see that there were a few other boxes in the room with him, and one of them was the one he had last seen Ryou hiding in.
"Ryou?" he called softly. "Are you still there?"
"Just barely," came the reply.
"I think it's safe to come out now. Everyone is busy moving things, still - they won't notice us, I don't think."
He was proven wrong almost at once. A voice detached itself from the hubbub outside, coming progressively closer, until the flaps of the tent were thrown open. Yugi dropped the lid of his trunk; Ryou ducked back into his box. The owner of the voice didn't seem to notice. She was singing to herself, a few snatches of jumbled words interspersed with humming. Her singing voice was a bit uncertain - not terrible, but by no means exemplary; whatever she did to entertain her clients, it didn't have anything to do with her vocal skills.
"Finally off the road again," she said to herself. "I hope we stay here a while. I get so bored with just looking out at miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles... Hm. I'd feel better if I could change out of these clothes."
Much to Yugi's horror, he heard her footsteps coming his way. He held his breath, closed his eyes, and wished with all his heart that he might develop the magic to turn invisible. Even with his eyes closed, he sensed the change of light and felt the stir of air as the trunk's lid was opened. The next thing he heard was a yelp of surprise.
"Ah, no, don't scream!" he begged futilely. "I don't mean any-"
"Eek! Pervert! Stalker! Peeping Tom!" the girl yelped.
"No, no, I'm not a pervert, I promise!"
The girl wasn't listening to him. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying working herself into a case of righteous hysteria. She continued backing away from Yugi as if he were the most fearsome thing she had ever set eyes on, instead of a rather small-for-his-age and bedraggled looking boy who had just undergone several days of short rations, and continued shouting epithets at him. Things came to a head when she backed into her wardrobe and bumped the door open, causing Ryou to unceremoniously fall on her. That did, at least, render her quiet, but only because it ended up with his arm in her mouth.
"Oh, dear," he said. "Er... so sorry about that."
Yugi resignedly got out of the trunk, wincing at his stiff and aching limbs, and attempted to sort out the tangle. He was profoundly embarrassed, not only at being caught in this undignified situation, but also because the girl was the same pretty dancer he had been admiring the night he had started on this journey. She was now making furious but thus far ineffective attempts to remove Ryou's arm from her face, and making muffled sounds that would doubtless have been insulting if she could only sound them out properly.
"Look, it's okay," said Yugi. "We're not stalkers or perverts or anything. We're just trying to keep the monster hunters from finding us. We didn't even know this was your tent, honest!"
The girl's expression went from furious and a little frightened to something a bit less violent and more confused. Yugi, judging it was safe, peeled Ryou off the ground and helped him stand up; he appeared to be even more stiff and battered than Yugi felt, after his long journey in the wardrobe. The girl continued to eye them both suspiciously.
"Monster hunters?" she repeated. "Why are you hiding from monster hunters? You don't look like monsters to me." She gave them an appraising look, taking in Yugi's diminutive stature and Ryou's innocent expression. "Actually, you don't look dangerous at all, now that I think about it."
"Well, it's kind of a long story," said Yugi, and Yami chimed in, "Suffice to say, we aren't exactly what we seem to be."
The girl backed off a little, slightly startled.
"I'll bet," she said. "I think you two had better explain to me exactly what's going on. I have a right to know who's been sleeping in my furniture."
The three Halves explained their predicament to her as best they could. Ryou described his flight from town to town, eternally pursued by his false reputation as a thief; Yugi told how he had met Yami, and how they were driven out of his village when it was revealed Yugi was a Half. All of them went on to explain how they had been captured by the Baron's monster hunters, and about the bounty placed on them by the Count. Yugi was relieved to see that the girl, rather than looking suspicious of their wild story, she looked indignant on their behalf.
"That's insane!" she declared. "I knew the Count was going rotten, but this - ooh, this makes me mad! Hunting people like they're animals - calling them monsters! I don't care if he is nobility - if I could get my hands on the Count, I'd show him a thing or two! Him and the Baron both! They have no right to do this!"
Yugi fought the urge to smile. It was a relief to see that she wasn't angry at him anymore, and it was nice to have an ally, even if it was just a dancing girl in a traveling show. Just a dancing girl? She looked ready to carry out her threats right now - she was pacing the floor in her agitation, making angry gestures. Even now her movements were dancelike; Yugi half thought she might call down thunder and lightning from the sky to smite the people she was angry at, the way some people were said to be able to dance rain onto parched land.
"I'm glad to hear you're on our side," said Ryou, echoing Yugi's thoughts.
She twirled to face him.
"You're right, I am!" she said. "How much do you know about us? The Wind People, I mean?"
"Not much," Ryou admitted. "Only that you're performers, and you travel a lot."
"Same here," said Yugi.
"Oh, well, I'm not surprised," she said. She calmed a little as she shifted her attention to a more comfortable subject. "You two are lucky, then. You've come to the right place. Listen: the one thing Wind People are taught to value above all other things is freedom. We're taught to be ourselves, no matter what, and to do what we love, and to share that joy with other people. That's why we move around so much, because we can't bear to be rooted in one place. The idea of someone hunting down another human being - even a Half-human - just for being what he is, and then imprisoning and torturing and killing him, and paying money for the privilege... Ugh, it makes me sick! I didn't think even the Count was that bad. He just seems to get worse and worse."
"You seem to know a lot about him," said Yugi.
"A little," she replied. "I saw him once, when I was very young. It was a long time ago, but I still remember. It was the day of the Count's wedding - I guess I was about three years old." She frowned a little, trying to bring back the old memories. "We had been invited to perform for the Count and his Countess after the wedding. My mother was the best dancer among us, back then, and she was invited to perform for him specially, and they let me come and watch. I remember thinking how big and crowded everything was - I kept getting scared and crying for mama whenever I was left alone, otherwise I never could have gotten so close to a noble. I don't remember too well what he looked like, but I remember thinking at the time he was stupid, because the whole time my mother danced, he never looked at her. He never took his eyes off the Countess." She laughed a little. "Can you blame me? All little kids think their mothers are the most beautiful woman in the world, right? Looking back, though, I think the Countess must have been very beautiful."
Yugi nodded. "But she died. I remember that. When I was about ten years old. We all had to do a bunch of things to show we were in mourning, and I didn't understand why I should mourn someone I'd never met and had barely even heard of."
"Everyone had to do that," said the girl. "Even the Wind People were forced to wear black in our costumes and we've never done that kind of thing before. Everyone knows you don't tell Wind People what to do, but the order was that we obey or be killed. We weren't about to all die off just because of a little black cloth."
Ryou's eyes went wide. "He didn't really kill anyone, did he?"
"No. We just didn't want to take the risk. He went... a little strange after his wife died. Some people say he went crazy. He shut himself up in his room for days at a time. There were even rumors..." She dropped her voice. "There were rumors he turned to dark magic."
"Really?" asked Yugi, eyes wide. His grandfather had told him a little about what went into dark magic, just enough for him to know it was a terrible thing. White magic took a special gift; all it took to master dark magic was to not care who you hurt, as long as you got what you wanted.
"That's what they say," she answered, shrugging. "I don't know that for sure, though. It's just a rumor. But I do know he hasn't paid much attention to anything since she died. He doesn't manage his holdings anymore. He doesn't look after the people like he used to. They say he used to be a kind and wise ruler, but... not anymore. It's getting harder and harder to earn a living. There are more monsters now, and fewer hunters to kill them. And now the hunters are hunting people instead of monsters. I don't like it."
"It does sound like dark magic," said Ryou. "Hunting people. Killing them. Do you think... do you think maybe he's trying to bring her back?"
"I don't even want to think about it," said the girl. "Anyway, you're safe here. The Wind People won't let anybody be treated that way. We'll take care of you as long as you want to stay here - I'll make sure of that. Did I introduce myself, by the way? I'm Anzu."
"I'm Yugi," he replied, and then added, "and Yami."
"Ryou. Nice to meet you," said Ryou.
Anzu grinned impishly. "Funny, I don't usually call falling on top of someone and getting screamed at 'nice'. But whatever makes you happy! Listen - you two stay here for a while, and lay low. I'm going to find my father and talk to him, and see what we can do for you two."
"Thanks, Anzu. This means a lot to us," said Yugi.
"What can I say? I'm nice to people," she said. She winked. "Especially people who tip. Bye!"
She danced away. Yugi watched her dreamily.
"She remembered me," he said.
Ryou laughed a little. "Forget it. You'll never tie down a Wind Person."
Yugi blushed and attempted to look innocent. He succeeded less by art and more because he looked that way naturally.
So, what do you think of all this, Yami? Yami? Are you listening?
I'm sorry, Yugi. I was thinking.
About what?
About what we've learned. I'm thinking about this Count, and what his reasons are for the things he is doing. Then he said abruptly, I've brought danger on you, Yugi.
What do you mean? This isn't your fault.
I know, but, nevertheless, I've done it without intending to... Well, maybe it will come to nothing.
You're not going to tell me, are you? Yugi accused.
If the Count is dabbling in dark magic... there are spells that could let him read your mind. You're safest not knowing all my secrets. I may tell you later, if I feel it has become important. But not yet. It could be that I'm wrong. If I'm not, I will tell you. I promise.
All right, Yami, but I'm holding you to that!
Yugi felt assent, and tried to be comforted by it. He was not sure he was. That was the thing about the two of them sharing the same body and mind: there was only so much they could hide from each other, and just now Yugi felt certain that whatever his other self said, he really didn't think his secret would amount to nothing.
Anzu returned a short while later, and she arrived with company. She was leading a lean and athletic man with salt-and-pepper hair, who proved to be her father. It seemed that Anzu had already told him most of what Yugi and his friends had told her, for he cross-examined them both as if he'd heard their stories firsthand. In the end, he seemed satisfied, for he nodded and assured them that he would do all in his power to keep them safe, at least until they came to a place where the wandering Halves could feel more secure.
"Not that you won't be earning your keep," he said. "You'll be expected to do chores with the rest of us, and earn your gold as best you can. Do you have any skills that might be useful?"
Yugi considered a moment; he had the feeling that this man wasn't talking about the usual household chores.
"Well..." he said slowly, "I'm good at cards."
Yami added, "And I have some skill with knives and swords that I can perhaps turn to entertainment purposes."
"I have a knack for cards, too," said Ryou. "Not just playing with them, though. I have the gift of telling fortunes. People say I'm accurate, anyway."
"Very good," said Anzu's father. "I'll see if I can find you some proper clothes to wear. You'll never pass as one of us dressed the way you are now."
Yugi and Ryou looked down at their clothing. Yugi was wearing the plain homespun garments that everyone wore back in his home town, now slightly travel stained. Ryou's mode of dress was a bit more genteel, though shabby after his months of hardship. Neither of them looked anything like Wind People, who tended to include every color of the rainbow in their garments as a matter of course.
"Some clothes would be nice," said Ryou a little wistfully, fingering a threadbare spot in his shirt.
"There's bound to be something around here somewhere," Anzu assured him.
There was indeed, and there were people willing to take in these strange wayfarers and make them part of the community. Without giving away too many details, Anzu and her family let it be known that Yugi and Ryou were being persecuted for crimes they hadn't committed, and had come to the Wind People to escape a dreary death in prison. Everyone in the Wind People could sympathize with that.
We might just be okay, Yugi thought. I can't imagine these people letting anything bad happen to us...
Nevertheless, something bad was coming. Somewhere off the beaten track, a pair of dusty and aggravated hunters was picking their way through the weeds.
"Stupid thief!" Jonouchi railed. "If he had just waited a few more minutes...!"
"We'd have taken the money and run," Honda finished, "and he wouldn't have gotten any loot, so it would have been pretty stupid of him to wait."
Jonouchi gave his partner a sour look. "You know what I mean! Besides, he coulda gotten plenty if he'd kidnapped that kid. You saw the look on Kaiba's face - he'd have done anything for that brat. Instead, he has to go and escape, and we get blamed for leaving the door open!"
"Well, we were the last ones to open it," said Honda, "and if he could have gotten out sooner, he probably would have."
"You sayin' it was our fault?"
"It would kind of look that way, to some people," Honda answered sheepishly.
"Stupid thief," said Jonouchi again, with venom. He paused, thoughtfully. "Kinda strange, though. I don't remember him having a scar, the first time we saw him."
"You're right. I don't remember one, either. But he did," said Honda.
"Weird," said Jonouchi. "Whatever - I'm still mad at him! 'Cause of him, we've got to go tramping all over the countryside trying to find a couple of stupid Halves! Argh! I hate this job!"
Honda sighed. "Me, too. Maybe we should go back to hunting real monsters. You know, drachies and orlochs and stuff. It doesn't pay as much, but..."
"That's the trouble," Jonouchi muttered. "Gotta get the money fast, before something happens. We don't have time to waste on orlochs."
Honda looked up at the darkening sky. "We might have to waste time on them, if we don't find shelter soon. It's getting dark."
"Aw, what are you worried about? Nobody's seen a monster in this territory in ages. We'd have to go all the way back up to the mountains just to find some drachies or something."
"I don't like drachies. They bite," Honda complained. Then he brightened. "Hey! Do you see what I see?"
Jonouchi stared off into the distance. "Looks like somebody's having a party! Hey, we might just be in luck! I missed the Wind People, last time they were in town!"
"Is now really the time to be goofing off?"
"Hey, they get around! They might know something we don't," said Jonouchi. "Besides, those Wind People girls are awfully cute!"
Honda rolled his eyes, but it looked like the decision was already out of his hands. Jonouchi had picked up his pace, heading in the direction of the firelight and music.
Some minutes later, something came scuffling along in their tracks, following their scent...
By the time dusk had begun to fall and the local villagers had begun wandering into the camp, Yugi and Ryou were properly attired and had been given tasks to do. Ryou, draped in "mystic robes" with a variety of odd symbols on them (Yugi knew enough magic to know most of them were complete nonsense), had set up shop in a dramatically shadowed spot, illumined by the occasional glints of light from a nearby bonfire. He must have been telling the truth about his accuracy, because it wasn't long before word of mouth had summoned a fair sized crowd to consult with him.
Yugi, on the other hand, had eventually agreed to let his partner take over the business dealings. Yami had been given a new dagger - freely given, not just loaned - of the kind the Wind People favored: long and slim, with a slightly curved tip, and a soft leather sheath to put it in. Once he had proven his skills with it to the satisfaction of the Wind People, he had been paired up with one of their number to fight mock-battles with, for the amusement of the spectators. Just now, he was squaring off with his "enemy", formulating the best way to strike. They sprang at each other almost at the same instant, clashed their weapons together with a great noise and a flurry of movement, and then leaped back again, circling each other once more.
"You're pretty good!" said the young man Yami was fighting. He was a striking fellow, with intensely green eyes and a long black ponytail.
"So are you," Yami answered, as they moved in for another series of stabs and parries.
"Thanks," the young man said. "I haven't done this in a while. Dice are really my specialty."
Ryou, in his dark corner, was just barely able to catch glimpses of his friend through the crowds. Despite the fact that he knew he was probably still in danger even here, he had to admit, he was enjoying himself. It was easy to forget his worries among these carefree people - easy even to forget that he wasn't really one of them. He had always wanted to be part of a group, any kind of group, as long as they approved of him, and he was doing so well here. Nobody seemed to think it was strange or unnatural that he could tell them their past, present, and future just from glancing at a stack of cards - that was the kind of thing people expected, around here. It would have been nice to think he could stay here forever.
Those thoughts were broken as his previous customer left and a new one plopped down on the stool in front of him. The movement was accompanied by a jingling of metal: the man carried more than the usual amount of weaponry, and his face was all-too-familiar.
"So, you can see the future, huh?" asked Jonouchi skeptically.
Uh-oh, Ryou thought.
He hesitated a moment, gathering himself, and the monster hunter watched him urgently. There was no sign of recognition on his face; obviously the robe Ryou wore, plus the darkness he was ensconced in, was sufficient to disguise him. Just as a precaution, he dropped his voice a bit, and did his best to infuse it with some of the gruffness that came from old age. If he was lucky, he could use his light hair to his advantage and fool his enemy into thinking he was an old man, rather than the young one the hunters were seeking.
"No, I do not see the future," he croaked, attempting to sound grim and dramatic, "but I can read the cards, and they see all. Take them and shuffle them, young man, so that they may feel your aura, and then I will read what they tell me of your fate."
Jonouchi accepted the deck Ryou offered him and shuffled it a few times. Ryou took it back and began laying cards out in a pattern.
This could be useful, he realized. Maybe the cards will tell me something about these hunters and their plans. Then Yugi and I can go wherever these two aren't going!
"First, your past," he said. "I see... hmm... humble beginnings. You carry good weapons and wear good clothes, but you were born poor, weren't you?"
The hunter nodded, looking a bit surprised.
Well, that explains the money fixation. I suppose all poor people want to be rich someday.
"Let's see, what else do we have here... I see unhappiness in your past. There is a sign of illness here, but not your own. Someone you love dearly."
He was gratified to see that the hunter had gone pale.
"I know my own past," he said brusquely. "Tell me something else!"
"All right. Your present, then. Ahh, this is very clear. The cards indicate... hmm, interesting. There is a strong pattern of guilt and reluctance. You feel you are trapped into doing something you do not wish to do, and you seek a means to be free of it."
Jonouchi laughed weakly. "You're right about that. Hey, you're pretty good, old-timer! So, what do you see in my future, huh? Is there a way out of this? Come on, spill!"
"Patience, young whippersnapper!" said Ryou, trying not to laugh at being called "old- timer". "When you get as old as me, you'll learn to be patient! Hmm, the future... I see... Ah! This isn't good. This is a sign of impending danger! Something deadly is about to catch up to you!"
"Me?" said Jonouchi, going white again. "Are you sure it's me? It's not someone else?"
Ryou felt a twinge of uneasiness; he got the distinct impression that Jonouchi was more frightened of someone else being in danger than for himself.
I wonder what the danger is? Ryou mused. Could it be... that thief, Bakura? Is he still following us? No, he wouldn't be targeting this guy. It would be me he's following. I wonder if I'll ever see him again...
Even as he was thinking this, there came a distant scream. The scream became several, and grew rapidly into a whole cacophony of terrified wails. Over that came the sound of unearthly baying. Fortune-telling forgotten, Jonouchi leaped to his feet and stared around wildly.
"Drachies?" he exclaimed. "Dammit, there aren't supposed to be drachies here!"
"What's a drachie?" asked Ryou, momentarily shocked out of his mystic role.
Jonouchi rolled his eyes. "You know, drachies! Horns, claws, needle-sharp fangs, feed on human blood? Drachies!"
The speech was punctuated by a drawn-out wail of terror from somewhere much too close by, which was abruptly cut short.
"Shit," said Jonouchi feelingly, and ran off to find the source of the noise.
He didn't have far to go. A pack of seven sinuous, wolf-like creatures, lean to the point of looking emaciated, had infiltrated the camp and were making their way steadily inward, toward the very center of activity, driven nearly wild by the scent of so many people in one place. They snapped at everything they passed, occasionally taking a lunge at a frightened person as they ran by. Here one seized a boy by the leg and bit down, piercing him to the bone, and stayed there until his father beat him off with a cudgel; there one sprang at a woman and just barely missed her, teeth closing on the hem of her dress and ripping it away. The woman who had screamed a moment ago was not so lucky. She had died before she knew what hit her. The townspeople were already fleeing for the walled safety of their village, but the Wind People stayed and defended themselves as best they could. Unfortunately, they had few weapons, and the increasingly heavy smell of blood made the drachies all the more wild.
"We have to get out of here!" That was Ryou, running and trying to pull Yugi away.
"No," said Yugi. "These people are protecting us; we should protect them. Right, Yami?"
There was a split-second pause as Yami debated between protecting his charges and defending his protectors.
"Yes, we fight," he said aloud. "Drachies took my first life. I will not leave anyone to that fate."
So saying, he shifted his grip on his knife and dove into the fray.
It was plain his help was needed. The Wind People were peaceful by nature, and few even owned weapons, much less had they mastered them. Most of the fighting was being done by the two monster hunters, Jonouchi and Honda. One of them had poured some kind of strange liquid on the ground, which gave off a purplish haze; it seemed the drachies were drawn to its scent, and kept trying to get closer to it. The two hunters were surrounded on all sides, hacking and chopping viciously. The drachies were nimble, though, and dodged almost too fast for the eye to follow. Both hunters had bleeding wounds from the drachies' claws.
Yami swooped in on the monsters and stabbed one of them in the spine before it had time to realize someone had snuck up on it; it fell over dead with its eyes still open. Honda and Jonouchi looked around to see what had happened. Yami met them with a cool stare.
"You! What are you doing here?" Honda exclaimed.
Yami slashed again with his knife, and a drachie backed away with its claw severed. "Helping you do your job, obviously."
The hunters saw the sense in that at once - one did not turn down help with getting rid of drachies, no matter where that help might have come from. The three of them were able to deal with the monsters, not without incurring some minor injuries. In the end, the grass was littered with bits of dead drachie, and the three warriors stood panting in the middle of it.
"Whoosh!" said Jonouchi. "That was some dustup!"
"You ain't kidding," Honda replied. "Is it just me, or do those things just get uglier every time I look at them?"
"They are hardly my favorite creatures in the world," said Yami dryly. He looked around for something to clean his knife.
Jonouchi looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. "Geez, you must be crazy! Either that, or you've got a really bad memory."
"What do you mean? I remember what drachies are like well enough. If I didn't, I couldn't fight them."
"I mean, helping us! We're the guys who put you in prison, remember? Beat you up and forked you over to the Baron for no good reason? That's us. What the hell are you doing, bailing us out like that?"
"It took the three of us together to kill the drachies. No one else stood a chance. I could not have done it alone - I know that from experience. If I had let you die, there would have been no one to defend the Wind People, and that would be a poor way to repay their hospitality. They have been kind to me, and to my friends," said Yami. "Besides, to be eaten by drachies is a horrible fate. I would not wish it on anyone, even an enemy. I certainly don't feel you two are deserving of such an end."
"Eh, well," said Jonouchi. "Maybe you're right, and maybe you ain't... but thanks. I owe you one."
"Yeah, me too," said Honda. "Hey, you know, you're a pretty awesome fighter. I've never seen anything like it!"
Yami bowed his head in acceptance of the compliment. As he did so, Ryou came running up.
"Yugi! Or Yami, or whichever you are! Are you okay?" he asked.
"A few scratches, is all."
"You're bleeding. All three of you," said Ryou. He began pulling apart his multicolored robe and trying to bind their wounds.
"Hey, you're not some old guy, after all!" Jonouchi exclaimed. "Geez, what's the matter with you two? If I were you, I wouldn't want to get within a mile of me. I think. Did that come out right?"
"I think you all need to sit down," said Ryou.
"I could use a breather," Honda admitted.
They found a place to sit that was relatively out of the way. A great number of people were running to and fro, trying to work out where their family and friends had gone, and whether everyone was all right.
"You were right after all," said Jonouchi to Ryou. "There really was something dangerous following us. Damn! I'm a monster hunter! I'm supposed to know better than to leave a trail like that!"
"But you said you didn't know," said Ryou. "I heard you say it - there aren't supposed to be drachies here."
"That's right," said Yami thoughtfully. "Drachies are mostly mountain creatures. I've never heard of them coming down to the flatlands. It's just as Anzu said. This land is becoming corrupt."
"Yeah, that sounds right," said Honda bitterly. "You know there's something wrong when the only way a guy can make a decent living is to hunt for other people! I don't care what anybody says - a monster wouldn't come back to help someone who'd hurt him, or patch him up after the fight."
"That's it! That completely does it!" said Jonouchi. "I have had enough of this job! I quit! So take that, Baron!" He spat on the ground. Then he turned back to Yami. "I guess I owe you an apology. Sorry about all that stuff about the prison and all. It was nothing personal."
"We heard you say you needed the money," said Ryou.
"Yeah," said Honda, a bit wistfully. "Guess we're just going to have to get it some other way, now."
"Do you mind if we ask why?" That was Yugi, putting his word in. The other two hunters looked startled to see a new voice come out of a familiar face.
"What are you?" Jonouchi asked. "You're not... possessed or something, are you?"
"Not possessed," said Yugi. "We're sharing. Yami and me, I mean. He's my other Half."
"Oh," said Jonouchi vaguely. "I guess that explains it. I mean, if there's one Half, there's gotta be another Half somewhere, I guess."
"My father used to talk about that," said Ryou. "He said that every Half had another Half, but they aren't always born in the same time or the same place, so most of the time, they never meet. When they do, strange things can happen. Magical things."
"Fun," said Jonouchi vaguely. "Anyway, since you asked and all... Well, see, it's like this. I've got a sister back in my home town. Her name's Shizuka. She's the greatest kid in the world, you know? But she's been sick for a while, now, and nothing seems to help. We heard there's a healer who can make her better, but he charges a king's ransom, and, well, we don't have that kind of money. I'm the only one in the family fit to work, so it's up to me to get enough saved up somehow to pay the healer bills."
"My story's not so touching," said Honda. "It's just, well..."
"Aw, c'mon, buddy. If I can tell, you can tell."
"Oh, okay. I'm in love."
"That doesn't usually cost money," said Ryou delicately, when Honda didn't seem inclined to explain any further.
"You've never been in love before, have you?" Honda shot back. "Not a girl like Miho, anyway. There's nobody like her anywhere! She's got this hair like satin, and eyes you could get lost in forever..." He stared off into space dreamily until Jonouchi prodded him, and he coughed and went on. "Trouble is, her parents are wealthy - not noble, just rich. They're merchants. I'm just a hunter. It's an honest job, but they want their daughter to marry someone who can support her the way she lives now. Can't blame them for that, I guess. I've got to find some way to make some money, fast, before someone else makes a proposal to her. They'll make her get married, if a noble asks for her, and she's so beautiful, you know someone will eventually. I have to prove I'm good enough for her!"
"Does that mean you're still going to take us back to the Baron?" asked Ryou nervously.
"What? No way!" said Jonouchi. "There's no way I'll turn in someone who saved my life. I mean, I can't save Shizuka if I'm eaten by drachies, can I? And he can't marry Miho, either," he added, giving Honda another prod, just to make sure he didn't get any ideas. "From now on, we're comrades in arms! Where you go, I go!" He crossed his arms and looked noble as he could.
"What about me?" asked Ryou. "I helped, too. You're being saved wouldn't have done you any good if you'd bled to death from not being bandaged, now, would it? And I did give you advance warning."
"All right, all right! Both of you are my friends, then," said Jonouchi.
"Same here," said Honda. "We'll just have to find some other way to..."
A distant voice cut in: "Yugi! Yami! Ryou! Where are you? Are you all right?"
"Over here, Anzu!" Yugi called back.
Anzu came rushing over. There was blood on her clothes, but none of it seemed to be hers.
"Oh, thank goodness," she said. "I was getting worried about you two! ... Three. How many do you count as? Well, it doesn't matter. When I didn't see you, I got worried. We're getting everyone cleaned and bandaged as best we can. So far, we've only found two people dead, both villagers, not that that makes it any better. Who are these two?"
"This is Jonouchi and Honda," said Yugi, making introductions. "They're our friends."
Anzu blinked. "Aren't those the names of the monster hunters who were out to get you?"
"That too," said Ryou casually. "They seem to have had a change of heart."
"I see," Anzu said slowly.
"Anzu, these two fought off the drachies, with Yami's help," said Yugi. "Your people probably owe them a lot of lives. I think we can trust them."
"You better believe you can!" said Jonouchi. "I'm as trustworthy as they come!"
"Yeah, sure," said Honda. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
"Anyway, they seem to want to stick with us for a while," said Yugi. "Can they?"
"I don't know. This is getting a little out of my depth," she said. "I'll have to talk to the clan leader about this one."
"It's no problem. I don't feel like moving much right now, anyway," said Honda.
The clan leader was produced: a thoughtful-looking man with a craggy face. He looked over the two monster hunters, stroking his chin and frowning a bit.
"You two are hunters?" he said at last.
Jonouchi and Honda nodded the affirmative.
"The three of us are," said Yami. "There are those who would say I'm the best in the business."
"Hmm," said the chief, looking doubtfully at Yugi's unprepossessing frame.
"Believe him," said Jonouchi. "He killed his share of those drachies. We couldn't have done it without him."
"Well, that being the case... There have been more monsters than usual on the roads, lately. What happened here tonight concerns me deeply. If you three hadn't chanced to come here, many of our people might have died. We use our weapons mainly for show; there are very few of us who know how to use them defensively. We could use your help. If you would consent to be hired as guards, I'm sure we would all be very grateful. We'd pay you, of course."
"You got yourself a deal!" said Jonouchi. He remembered what he'd just been talking about and added, "If it's okay with my buddies, I mean."
"It's fine with me!" said Honda.
"Well, I don't know if my opinion counts," said Ryou, "but I'd love to stay a while. Yugi? Yami? What do you think of this?"
Yugi was slightly distracted. Anzu was making frantic faces and gestures at him, giving him the distinct impression that she wanted him to come talk to her. He wasn't sure what she was doing, but it obviously was important to her. Nevertheless, he felt it would be rude to walk away from the chief without answering his question.
"It's fine by me," he said. "After all you've done to help us, I couldn't possibly not want to help you in some way."
The chief beamed. "Wonderful! When we leave tomorrow, I'll make sure there's a place reserved for you all."
With polite goodbyes, the chief walked off to tend to his injured clansmen. As soon as he was gone, Anzu stormed up to Yugi with fire in her eye.
"Why didn't you listen to me?" she demanded.
"I thought it would be rude to walk away from the chief!" Yugi replied.
Anzu sighed. "I know it would have been rude. Did you think I'd ask you to do something like that if it wasn't important?"
"Umm..."
"Hey, what's the problem?" asked Jonouchi. "Don't you want us around?"
"Yeah, but not like this!" said Anzu. "Yugi, do you realize what you've just committed yourself to?"
"Helping the caravan," Yugi replied. "The chief is right - you guys do need someone to help protect you. It'll be all right - I know I don't look like much, but Yami's really good at this kind of thing, really! You don't have to worry about us!"
Anzu rolled her eyes. "Maybe from monsters, you're safe, but what about people?"
"What do you mean?" asked Yugi. "Jonouchi and Honda are on our side now!"
"Oh, you're in for a lot more trouble than that," said Anzu, her voice shaking. "You just agreed to guard our caravan all the way to its next stop... in the Count's home city."